Kyle Woodlief's mock NHL draft

By Kyle Woodlief, special to USA TODAY

The following mock draft, from Red Line Report's staff, has a number of significant differences from our value board. Red Line is a pure scouting service that rank prospects in the order we would select the available players if we lived in a vacuum where needs and other outside forces never entered the equation. This mock draft merely represents a fun exercise of our best guess-timate of what we think might actually play out on draft day.

Nail Yakupov drew plenty of attention at the draft combine as the expected No. 1 pick.

Sponsored Links

1. Edmonton — Nail Yakupov. We don't think the Oilers will end up making this pick, so our mock draft is in trouble right away. Ideally they trade down two or three spots and still pick up Morgan Rielly or Ryan Murray. But if they get "stuck" with the No. 1 pick, Yakupov should be the guy.

2. Columbus — Ryan Murray. The Jackets can't wait through 2-3 years of development. They need immediate help that can step right into the lineup and a workhorse puck mover on the blue line. Voila! Two birds, one stone.

3. Montreal — Alex Galchenyuk. Expect them to make a play for the No. 1 pick to grab Yakupov. Barring that, this will be a really tough choice for them with Filip Forsberg still on the board, but they've been hunting for size down the middle since … Jean Beliveau? Peter Mahovlich? Bobby Smith?

4. New York Islanders — Morgan Rielly. They would love to have a dynamic triggerman to juice up their power play and transition game, so Rielly's the perfect choice.

5. Toronto — Filip Forsberg. Color them thrilled to get the ultra-competitive shooter down at No. 5. He instantly raises the intensity level in Toronto.

7. Minnesota — Teuvo Teravainen. They need a third dynamic Finn to round out the Mikael Granlund/Koivu troika! Seriously, they might have reservations about his fire/intensity, but they absolutely love his skills and home-run potential.

8. Carolina — Jacob Trouba. He's exactly the type of solid citizen and leader the Hurricanes look for and would thrive under Kirk Muller's hands-on approach.

9. Winnipeg — Griffin Reinhart. They have some bangers on the blue line, but could use a rangy 6-4 defender with soft hands back there to add some finesse.

10. Tampa Bay — Hampus Lindholm. Tampa could use a bookend Swedish twin-tower to pair up with Victor Hedman and form a great one-two punch from the back end.

11. Washington (from Colorado) — Mikhail Grigorenko. They need to replace Alexander Semin's skill and goals, and Washington has been a great place for Russians to play. The Caps might be scared off because of their experience with Yevgeny Kuznetsov, but we think Grigorenko will jump at the chance to pair up with Alex Ovechkin.

12. Buffalo — Scott Laughton.Derek Roy might be on his way out of town soon, and the Sabres see an opportunity to draft and develop his ultimate replacement.

13. Dallas — Zemgus Girgensons. Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk would like to add a Joe Nieuwendyk-type player to his lineup. Girgensons might be that guy with his great size, shot, and aggressive nature.

14. Calgary — Olli Maatta. The Flames could really use a steady, dependable presence on the blue line to add to their prospect stable, and this feels too good to be true.

16. Washington — Radek Faksa. As long as they're adding size down the middle, might as well take Faksa, too. It's a yin-yang sort of thing: Grigorenko has never seen his defensive zone, while Faksa is the most responsible defensive center in the draft.

17. San Jose — Derrick Pouliot. Adding another element of speed and puckhandling to the blue line and grooming him to replace Dan Boyle in a couple of years might be the smartest move the Sharks could make.

18. Chicago — Andrei Vasilevski. The Blackhawks don't trust their goaltending and take a shot on a potential game-changer. It's a great gamble for them at this point in the draft.

19. Tampa Bay (from Detroit) — Pontus Aberg. They happily take their second Swede and replenish the coffers up front. Several of their key forwards are beginning to show signs of age, and Stevie Y came to appreciate the Tomas Holmstrom/Johan Franzen type of hard-driving Swedish wingers who get to the net. That's Aberg to a T.

20. Philadelphia — Matt Finn. With age on the blue line and Chris Pronger's career likely at an end, it makes sense for the Flyers to go after one of the smartest two-way defensemen in the draft.

21. Buffalo (from Nashville) — Cody Ceci. They have some nice depth on the blue line, but could really use a power-play quarterback and puck mover to take some of the load off Tyler Myers. Ceci is a horse with a lot of stamina.

22. Pittsburgh — Tom Wilson. The Penguins would love to get their hands on this massive, nasty specimen to ride herd for the Crosbys and Malkins of the world. Pittsburgh's skilled players have been taking far too much abuse. That would stop with Wilson in the lineup.

23. Florida — Oscar Dansk. They'll make do with bargain-basement veterans for the time being, but nobody needs to inject young netminding blood into their system more urgently than the Panthers.

24. Boston — Stefan Matteau. Nobody fits the dirty, gooning style Boston plays better than Matteau. He'll fit right in in Beantown and make the Bruins an even more menacing presence.

25. St. Louis — Henrik Samuelsson. As if the Blues needed more size and grit up front. Samuelsson plays a style Ken Hitchcock will really appreciate.

26. Vancouver — Slater Koekkoek. He had a chance to be drafted much higher before the injury, and Vancouver is deep enough to take a chance on finding a premium talent late. They need to increase the youth and skill factor on the back end anyway.

27. Phoenix — Sebastian Collberg. The 'Yotes have a lot of age creeping in up front and would like to add a skilled playmaker. Collberg is the best available at this point in the proceedings, and he also fits the gritty identity they carved out during their playoff run this spring.

28. New York Rangers — Tim Bozon. Call this one a hunch. He seems like the type of speed-and-skills winger with upside that Gordie Clark likes, and the Rangers are certainly on the prowl to find some secondary scoring.

29. New Jersey — Malcolm Subban. Hey, what Martin Brodeur just did at the age of 40 is phenomenal, but he can't keep this up forever. Can he?

30. Los Angeles — Scott Kosmachuk. The Stanley Cup champs have the luxury of taking whoever they deem the best player left on the board, regardless of position. That being the case, we think Kosmachuk is just the style of player co-chief scout Mike Futa likes.

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

Posted | Updated

USA TODAY is now using Facebook Comments on our stories and blog posts to provide an enhanced user experience. To post a comment, log into Facebook and then "Add" your comment. To report spam or abuse, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box. To find out more, read the FAQ and Conversation Guidelines.